I'm already having a blast with FBC: Firebreak's creative co-op action
As I fought a giant sticky note monster deep within the executive offices of the Federal Bureau of Control, I found quiet solace in the fact that Remedy Entertainment hadn't lost any of its quirky, wildly creative charm with its new cooperative first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak.
Whenever a studio known for excellent single-player adventures branches out and tries something different, it always feels like a toss-up as to whether or not it'll succeed. Situations like Rare and Sea of Thieves stand as success stories, while disasters like Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League serve as cautionary tales. Fortunately, after going hands-on with the game for three hours, it feels like FBC: Firebreak is going to be the former, not the latter.
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The studio's lack of experience with the genre can be seen in things like UI clarity, but for the most part, this is a cooperative shooter that thrives thanks to satisfying gun play and creative mission design that takes full advantage of Remedy's wacky connected universe. FBC: Firebreak is a game I already want to go back and play more of, which is a good sign after just a few hours of hands-on.
In FBC: Firebreak, players control volunteers clearing out supernatural threats that have overtaken The Oldest House. Players complete different jobs in teams of three, completing special mission-specific objectives before returning to the elevator and leaving. It occupies the same space as games like Left 4 Dead and Deep Rock Galactic, which is a smart move for Remedy rather than trying to make a name for itself in the competitive extraction shooter or battle royale spaces.
Each player can equip a different kit associated with a different element. I used the Jump Kit, which centers around electrocuting enemies. A good team composition would also include a kit that could get enemies wet, as that increased the area of effect for my electrical abilities. Different situations in each of FBC's levels impact the elements at play. A fiery grenade can set off a sprinkler, staying near a furnace for too long can cause heat damage, or holding radiated leech pearls for too long could poison me. A lot of the fun in FBC comes from the interplay of all these elements, and I was cheering when my squad could pull off a devastating enemy combo.
The gunplay of FBC also feels tight so far, with the machine gun becoming a favorite of mine due to how the gun animated as I fired it. As someone who was disappointed by only being able to wield a pistol in Control, I appreciate that FBC lets me use some of the other weapons I've seen in that world. FBC is at its strongest when it leans into the Remedy of it all. Exploring the furnace from a new angle made me more intimately familiar with the area, while level conceits like sticky note monsters or growths on a wall that drop radioactive pearls are supernatural in a way that only quite works in Remedy's Connected Universe.
I'm also grateful that this hands-on affirmed that FBC has strong mission design. The weakness of many co-op shooters, like Suicide Squad, is that missions often just boil down to killing a certain number of enemies and moving on. FBC is never quite that simple, having players move a shuttle along a track as they collect pearls or run around the furnace activating generators as hordes of enemies charge at players. The objectives change as players increase the difficulty, which should add some more replay value.
FBC isn't like other cooperative shooters, and that's its greatest strength. It's also why I hope it'll allow me to overlook some of Remedy's growing pains as it enters the multiplayer space with a new interpretation on the world of Control. During my time with FBC, there were some UI and UX clarity issues. For instance, I had trouble understanding which enemies were damaging me. One objective, which had my team filling barrels with a substance before throwing them into a giant furnace, was confusing because it wasn't completely clear which barrels were filled or where we could fill them.
In a debrief before my demo, Remedy said it was working on making features, systems, and UI clearer, so hopefully some of that will be resolved before launch. If it can clean all of that up, though, Remedy has what could be a gem of a multiplayer shooter on its hands. As someone subscribed to both of the services FBC is launching onto, I'm eager to give it another shot when it comes out.
FBC: Firebreak launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on June 17 and will be available from day one as part of the PS Plus Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalogs.
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